Tripods are usually used to support apparatus to work at certain height. In the market today, the tripods for lights, telescopes, cameras, camcorders and microphones usually include an extendable pole set of two or more poles or telescopic legs to change height. Most extendable devices use off-center handles to tighten or loosen poles. Locking down the extension poles in place would use wing screws, bolts or pins. Lights, telescopes, cameras, camcorders and sound equipment are tightened to a tripod using traditional UNC ¼″-20 screws. These traditional tripod devices have several drawbacks such as: lot of parts, complicated assembly, high production cost, extending and locking down slowly. In addition, these tripods are used for a single purpose, just to support apparatus. If a piece of apparatus requires external power in outdoor environment where power source is unavailable, external battery will be needed. Batteries are stored inside the storage compartment underneath a tripod or the battery is hanged below the center extendable pole (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,228 B1). These approaches have limited power capacity because a tripod has limited storage space. Furthermore, the battery cannot charge and discharge power at the same time (as described in US 2012/0181979 A1). Wiring harness is cumbersome because attaching batteries below the center pole would require running wires from the battery below to the tripod head above (as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,294 B2). All these drawbacks limit the portability of a tripod. Some tripods for the sake of portability are made with light weight material. This will reduce loading limit of the tripod. A tripod can tip over easily on uneven grounds such as dirt or grass land. Tipping over will also tip and break the supported apparatus.
In order to resolve the foresaid issues, there is a need for a type of portable multipod which will mount and dismount apparatus quickly, extend rapidly and steplessly, and supply power with built-in batteries.